Hotel Castelmar

The shower pressure was good, and the cleaning lady was very friendly. The room cleaning was fine apart from the sheets: we were told they’d be changed daily when we booked the package, but they weren’t. There wasn’t even a liner in the bathroom trash can. We asked reception staff and waitresses several times to put our drinks in the freezer, but they left them in the refrigerator, including the ice we’d bought to take home. The Wi-Fi also didn’t work well. At reception, one man was rude to us, and other families told us they’d had the same experience. The food was plentiful, but they served the same appetizers every day, and a lot of it seemed reheated. The pizza appetizer was clearly old and so dry it looked like toast. The main courses often came with raw meat. Breakfast was plentiful too, but it was mostly bread and pastries, the same every day, and we got raw pastries several times. Drinks were very expensive, more than buying them at the beach. A 1.5-liter bottle of Sierra Los Padres flavored water cost $7,500, which was outrageous. We couldn’t save leftover drinks from dinner for the next meal, so we had to buy more. They also charged us to fill the thermos, even though we’d been told when buying the package that hot water for it was free.

The attentive service from the women working there, decent breakfast, good location, and reasonable cleanliness are all positives. It’s a simple two-star hotel with the basics, and it does the job if you spend the day at the beach and just come back for a hot shower and dinner. I stayed about 3 years ago and felt the food quality had dropped quite a bit since then. It’s a good option if you’re not after luxuries and care most about location and practicality.

The location is the best part: three blocks from Bristol Beach and great for shopping. Walk five blocks and you’re in the city center, near the pedestrian areas and theaters. The staff are very friendly, and the service is excellent. I also really liked the food, which is buffet style and lets you serve yourself as much as you want, including appetizers. Drinks are expensive, though I imagine that’s how the hotel makes money. The rooms are small and basic, in line with a two-star hotel. The bed was a bit uncomfortable because it had two mattresses set on a double bed frame instead of one double mattress. One elevator was out of service every other day, but they fixed it. It’s a very good choice for a trip to Mar del Plata, since you’ll probably spend most of the day out and use the room to rest. I highly recommend it.

The location is very good, close to the beach and pedestrian areas, and near Plaza Colón, where you can catch buses to visit different beaches. The room was generally small but comfortable. But from Monday through Thursday it wasn’t cleaned, and they only changed the bath towels. The floor was covered in sand, the bathtub was dirty, and the sink was never cleaned. When we arrived, we had no towels or soap, and there wasn’t even a liner in the bathroom trash can. We were kept waiting from 10:00 AM until 1:30 PM for our room. They said we had to wait for the other buses arriving from Tucumán. When they finally called us, our name wasn’t on the list, so we waited even longer for the key. Breakfast and dinner tasted good, but they served the same food every day, and it was reheated food that was two days old. One morning I took some pastries that were completely raw. I told the waiter, and he said I could eat them as they were or leave them on the table because all the pastries were raw. I didn’t think that was an appropriate answer, so I left mine on the table. The next morning, when we asked where the toast was, the waitress was very rude. They never served toast with butter at breakfast, and bread was rarely served at dinner. At dinner later that day, the waiters were assigned different sections, but ours kept looking at us without coming over. When we called him, he looked away. We had to get up to order drinks, our main course, and dessert. The Wi-Fi never worked, not even in the lobby, despite being told it was included in the package.